Aqua Medic has launched its own unique aquarium roller filter called the Ocean Clear. Aimed at mechanically filtering sump-based systems up to 850 liters, the single-size fleece filter uses a conventional 40m long x 100mm wide fleece, a float switch, motor, and controller to flood a fleece-lined acrylic box, causing the switch to turn the motor, advancing the fleece every time it gets dirty. Nothing unconventional there, but it also uses a few design tweaks we hadn’t seen before, which made us sit up and take notice, and we did a double-take when we saw the price.
Differences
Most roller filters connect to a sumped aquarium’s main drain, either with hard piping or flexible hose, but with Ocean Clear, the drain pipe simply has to hang over the device to work, not physically connect to it using pipe fittings. That also means that you could hang your emergency drain over it too, to catch the extra few percent of dirty water that travels down there at the same time.
Next is the ability to use it as a pump-fed stand-alone filter in a sump. Again, nothing new there in theory – a Clarisea can do that – but with Ocean Clear, you simply cut the attached rubber blanking grommet, and an Ocean Runner 1000 DC pump can connect directly to the filter body with no hoses required. This makes it compact, and flexible yet able to run as a bypass and not filter all the water at the same time.
Lastly is how they designed it for roll changing. Both the clean and dirty spools sit on top of the unit just like everyone else’s and line the inside of a laser-cut acrylic box, but it is actually a box in a box, and you can simply lift the whole inner box out for quick and easy roll replacement while leaving the main body of the device still in the sump. The float switch is height adjustable too, so that you can adjust the running height inside the unit as well as physically lift up the whole unit to get the required running height.
Price
And last but not least is the price. The Aqua Medic Ocean Clear has a European retail price of just 150 euros – the equivalent of $163 in the US – £150 in the UK, and less than half the price of the market leaders. So why so cheap?
We have literally just found out about this device and have not touched one or used one long-term yet. Roller filters live and die by their ease of connection, ease of changing the roll, the longevity of the motors, if they roll straight, and if they continually jam and alarm, or not. We have seen the connection methods and the changing of the roll in the video below. IF that motor runs well long-term and the roll advances nice and straight with no problems, it’s a killer price for what we now consider essential equipment for any reef tank and sump combination.
Watch the video
We have attached the following video to illustrate what we’re talking about above. It’s in German, and quite lengthy, but switch the YouTube subtitles to your chosen language, and all of the Aqua Medic Ocean Clear’s design features should become clear.
